A new class of probiotics

Why you are sick

An overview of the hygiene hypothesis, old friends hypothesis or depleted biome hypothesis for beginners

Your body is an ecosystem, not a machine

Your immune system is not weak, in fact quite the opposite.

If you have an autoimmune, allergic or a disease involving chronic inflammation due to immune dysregulation you have one of the latest models of the human immune system, a top-of-the-line model.

Your immune system is adapted to the filthiest, most pathogen riddled environments humans have ever lived in.

It kept your collection of genes in the game over evolutionary time.

You are quite a specimen.

Your immune system is so vigilant, so quick and strong in it's reactions, that if you are like most of our clients you "never get sick". Under the right circumstances you would, and perhaps are, less likely to get almost any infectious disease, and cancer.

Sadly, our modern environment is not the right circumstances.

Your immune system is misconfigured and malfunctioning because it is getting "bad" information. By which I mean information it is not adapted to interpret.

As a result, is reacting to things it should not, and reacting in ways it should not.

It is misconfigured because for your entire life, including right now, the environmental signals it depends upon to develop properly and to learn how and when to react and what to react to and what not to react to are absent or incomplete.

The source of those signals throughout your life have been removed by excessive hygiene (fewer microbes in and on you), and perhaps worse those that remain have grown louder because so many other signals are absent (less variety means some of those remaining are present in much larger numbers).

Be depriving it of challenges throughout your life, thanks to sterile food and water, and in particular because of antibiotics, it has not been exposed to the types of challenges it requires to learn what to react to, and how to react.

Your genes made it from the dawn of our species, through hunter-gathering, through the adoption of agriculture, through the filthy medieval cities, through migrations and wars and famines. You are very well built, the end result of four and one half billion years of evolution. Some of our genes are the same as those found in the oldest types of bacteria, some in onions.

That is some staying power.

So, you can safely get rid of the hand sanitiser, doing so will help you be healthier in the long run.

As you may have read humans are changing the environment so fast we are exterminating species faster than at any time in history. Many are afraid, I included, that our own extinction may be a consequence.

What people fail to realise is that those environmental changes are damaging human health on an astonishing and growing scale already.

Your immune system evolved for an environment we have profoundly changed in the developed world and increasingly in the developing world. We have created environments which because of excessive hygiene and changes to our diet, increased stress, much lower levels of physical activity and reduced sunlight exposure, as well as other factors our immune systems are maladapted and confused.

We can assume our immune systems have dealt with all those challenges from birth for every generation before you given your existence very well, so get rid of the hand sanitiser.

But without those challenges, your immune system does not develop properly. It does not have to deal with infections and diseases.

As a result, it is miscalibrated. It does not learn to distinguish real threats from things like cat dander or pollen because it never really has to deal with anything.

Vaccinations, sterile food and water and particularly antibiotics prevent it from learning. It evolved for a succession of different environments where your ancestors were under constant assault.

Your immune system is not the problem, your environment is.

Your immune system is pointed in the wrong direction and acting disproportionately against threats that are not really threats at all.

About Us

We pioneered the use of two organisms, only one of which had been studied in the laboratory at that point. We treated our first clients in 2007, for Atopic Disorders, MS, Crohn's and Colitis. This is the story of our experiences since we came upon the hygiene hypothesis in 2004 and started by healing ourselves.

Factors to consider

A variety of factors determine how best to apply helminthic therapy.Or, whether helminthic therapy should be used at all.

1

Immunological Disease/s

Sone diseases only respond to some helminths. Others can carry a high risk of side-effects if you use the "wrong" helminth. There are three different ways in which helminths can produce a therapeutic response, and which disease or diseases you have and how they each respond to each of the 3 mechanisms by which they produce therapeutic responses determines which and how many organisms are appropriate for you.

2

Age & gender

Age and gender can have an impact on how fast you respond to helminthic therapy, your odds of responding at all, in some cases even how likely side-effects will be. People under the age of 15 so far have responded very well, quickly. Over that age there does not appear to be much if any difference between a 20-year old and an 80-year old. Gender only really has one large impact, one's vulnerability to iron defiency anaemia, though as described here in many cases hookworms will produce an improvement in those with anaemia as a result of chronic inflammation.

3

Other diseases

Chronic infections, a history of cancer, pregnancy, blood disorders, and other various co-morbidities effect response and the odds of side effects. Blood viscosity and clotting time are both effected, in particular by helminths so a history of cardiovascular disease can be a factor. Some can mean individuals will have very strong immune responses to hookworms and especially to whipworms, so it is important to be completely honest about your medical history on our Questionnaire.

4

Malnutrition

Malnutrition does not mean being thin or underweight alone. You can be fat and malnourished. You can look as though you are in great shape and be malnourished. Nor is malnourishment dependend on what you eat alone, though that is the most important factor. Part of our Treatment Plans is detailed advice on supplementation and diet, execise, etc.

Some countries are easy to ship to, others less so. Hookworm are relatively fragile, while whipworm ova are seemingly bulletproof. So if you live in a country where getting you hookworm is next to impossible it may be necessary to treat you using whipworm even though hookworm would ordinarily be the first choice.